


Apology

by drneroisgod



Series: You're All The Things I've Got to Remember [6]
Category: H.I.V.E. Series - Mark Walden
Genre: F/F, Lesbian Raven, also nigel is there, hope it doesn't awaken anything in her, she's just about to meet a girl at a party!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25683250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drneroisgod/pseuds/drneroisgod
Summary: Raven and Nero attend a party at Diabolus Darkdoom's house to celebrate the birth of his first child, but Raven doesn't want to be at the party.
Relationships: Natalya | Raven & Diabolus Darkdoom, Natalya | Raven & Maximilian Nero
Series: You're All The Things I've Got to Remember [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1478930
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Apology

“Do I have to go?” Raven asks—whines, really. Nero is surprised: to date, Raven has thrown at him her vitriol, her anger, her annoyance, her despair, but they have made progress. She has never complained about an assignment before. She’s the kind to hit the ground running. Then again, she’s still a teenager, Nero thinks to himself. What did he expect? It had to come out sometime.

And, this isn’t really an assignment.

“Yes, you do,” Nero tells her, straightening his tie in the bathroom mirror and running his hand through his hair. “Where I go, you go. That’s how being a personal bodyguard works.”

Raven scowls from the doorway. “I thought you said that Darkdoom would provide security, and I could have the night off.”

“Plans change, Raven,” Nero says sternly, hoping the use of her codename will remind her the exact nature of their relationship. “I need you tonight.”

“Yes, sir,” Raven grumbles. She stalks back into the central room of their suite, where Nero has laid out an outfit for her to wear. Nero hopes this will be the end of it, but, of course, it isn’t.

“You do remember that the last time I saw him, he shot me?” she yells.

Nero rolls his eyes. “He thought you were going to kill me!”

“I  _ was _ going to kill you,” he hears her grumble. 

“Do you really want to finish that sentence?” Nero asks, looking straight into the mirror.

Raven’s only response is to slam her bedroom door. 

Raven tries not to look completely miserable at the party. 

“It will only be a few friends,” Nero assured her. “We may not even stay that long.”

Yeah, right. Raven could see from the driveway that this was not going to be an intimate get-together. 

“Those don’t look like G.L.O.V.E. associates,” Raven said, watching a few elderly ladies with impractical jewelry hoist themselves out of their 1995 Nissan Sentra.

Nero barely glanced up from his tablet. “I think Julia was inviting some friends from work, too,” he said. 

Just what this night needed. Ignorant civilians. 

Raven did her best to follow Nero’s lead as they walked to the door. The security at the door would be a piece of cake, if it came to that, but Nero walked past with a breezy smile. Raven followed.

They found Darkdoom beneath a bright display of green and yellow balloons. 

“Congratulations again, Diabolus,” Nero said, shaking his friend’s hand warmly. “Everyone back home was so pleased to hear.”

“Thanks,” Darkdoom said, unable to stop smiling. “Raven! Nice to see you, too. Make yourselves at home. There’s snacks just through there if you get hungry.”

Julia was there, too, holding the baby, but Raven kept her distance.

Instead, she followed Nero as long as he would let her. He knew a fair number of people at the party, with whom he seemed perfectly happy to make innocent discourse, and of course he was perfectly charming to all the people he didn’t know as well. Raven didn’t know how he could stand it.

Didn’t he know that villains had no place having a baby?

Eventually, Nero got tired of walking around with a grim-faced Wednesday Addams (she hadn’t braided her hair, but her pale complexion and black dress didn’t exactly make her look cheerful), and he gave her a look.

“The kitchen’s just through there, dear,” he said meaningfully. “Why don’t you go get that glass of water you wanted?”

Translation: go be my personal bodyguard, who I personally forced to come to this event, in the kitchen, where you cannot possibly get to me in time if something goes wrong. Perfect. 

Nonetheless, Raven is relieved to have an excuse to be anywhere else, and so she goes to the kitchen, drinks some water, and attempts to put on a neutral expression.

“Does your dad work with Julia, too?”

Raven turns to see a girl (civilian, her own age, completely harmless) drinking something that is not water and looking at her strangely. 

“Oh, no,” Raven says. “He works with her husband.”

“Ah,” the girl says, and she doesn’t seem to care about the answer. She offers Raven her cup. “Want some?”

“No.” The girl looks startled by Raven’s firmness, and Raven does her best to backtrack. “Thanks. I’m here with my dad. He’d mind.”

“My mom’s not gonna be thrilled when she finds out,” the girl says, grinning and still looking a little strange. “But that’s a problem for Future Ashley.”

Ashley sticks around. Raven hasn’t had a normal conversation like this in years. Ashley is pretty. A little short. She has deep brown skin and tight, curly hair that bounces when she laughs. She wants to know about what grade Raven is in, where she goes to school, if her exams this year seemed way harder than normal or what. Raven lies convincingly. Ashley’s eyes are dark brown, which is a stupid thing to notice, but Raven cannot stop noticing. 

She’s beginning to feel a little strange herself. 

“My friend Hannah, though, she’s been getting on me to watch these Marvel movies,” Ashley says. They have been speaking a long time, and yet, Raven feels, they have hardly said anything at all. Not that she minds.

“Yeah?”

“She’s just boy crazy, though, you know? Which is, like, fine. Not for me, obviously. But like, I’m not opposed to superheroes, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“Ashley!” A woman who is obviously Ashley’s mother waves at her urgently. “Your father’s ready to go home. Say goodbye to your friend!”

Ashley gives Raven an apologetic smile. “I know you said you don’t live nearby,” she says. “But, if you want to chat more, here’s my number.”

She writes down the numbers on her paper cup, and hands it to Raven. There’s a little bit left in the cup. She holds the cup to her lips, and sighs. When she sees that Ashley’s family is gone, she downs the rest of the drink and throws the cup in the garbage.

Before they leave, Darkdoom finds a moment to speak with her.

“By the way,” he says, his smile not quite meeting his eyes. “I wanted to apologize. For, ah… the incident with the rifle.”

Raven doesn’t know what to say. “Oh, um. Don’t worry about it. It worked out, I guess.”

“I’m glad you think so, too,” Darkdoom says. “But I wanted to say it. I try to avoid antagonizing the most dangerous people in the world unless absolutely necessary.”

Raven allows herself a small smile at this. “That’s probably a good policy.”

“You know, I was just speaking to Max just a few minutes ago, and I think he’s just about ready to leave,” Darkdoom says. Raven straightens up, brushing cracker crumbs from her dress and takes a sip of water. He lifts a paper cup from the trash. “Are you sure you don’t want to take that girl’s number with you before you go?”

Raven nearly chokes, but forces herself to swallow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, blushing deep red. 

Darkdoom is all nonchalance and knowing looks. “I’m just saying, Raven. She really liked you. We could see that from across the room.”

Raven pinches the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “That obvious, huh?”

Darkdoom claps her on the back. “Work at Max’s school for a few years. You’ll learn to see the signs.”

When Raven extricates herself from Darkdoom’s friendliness, she marches up to Nero.

“Can we go now?”

Back in the hotel room, Nero loosens his tie and tosses it on top of his suitcase. Raven brushes her teeth. She is wondering if anyone celebrated the day she was born, or any of the days after.

“Thank you for humoring me,” he says, not totally sure if Raven is listening. “But Diabolus is a close friend and a powerful ally. It’s a good idea for you to make friends with him, too.”

“Funny,” Raven says quietly. “He apologized about shooting me because he thought it would be a good idea to make friends with me.”

Nero casts her a sideways glance. “I don’t think he’s wrong.”

Raven wonders if he is going to ask about the girl. She doesn’t want to talk about it. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. (That isn’t true. But she still can’t do it tonight.)

“Are you all right?” Nero asks. “You look distracted.”

“No,” Raven tells him. “I’m here.”


End file.
